The pair previously fought for the vacant light heavyweight championship back at UFC 187 in 2014, with Cormier winning the fight by second round submission and claiming his first UFC title. Cormier went on to defend his title against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 192 but has not defended the title since.

Following a break after defeating Gustafsson, Cormier was booked to face a returning Jon Jones who was suspended by the UFC at the time for a hit and run incident back in 2014.

The rematch was set for UFC 197 but Cormier had to pull out due to an injury and Jones went on to face Ovince St. Preux for the interim light heavyweight championship. Jones won the fight by decision and the rematch with Cormier was booked as the headliner for UFC’s landmark UFC 200.

A few days prior to the event, Jones was pulled from the card by USADA after testing positive for a banned substance. Cormier decided to stay on the card and fought former middleweight champion Anderson Silva on short notice and defeated the former pound for pound number one by decision.

After the Jones ordeal, Cormier set his sights on future contenders in the light heavyweight division and the first name on the list was Anthony Johnson. After losing to Cormier, Johnson returned to his best knocking out Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Bader and more recently Glover Teixeira to earn his number one contender spot once again.

A rematch was set for UFC 206 in Toronto, but Cormier suffered yet another injury to his knee forcing the champion to withdraw from the fight and Johnson decided to wait until the champion was cleared to fight again.

The rematch is now officially set for UFC 210 where the UFC will return to Buffalo for the first time since UFC 7. Until last year that was the only time the UFC held an event in the state of New York before the sport was banned there. The ban was lifted last year and the UFC has held two events since in the state of New York.

Also scheduled to fight on the card is a middleweight showdown between former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and Gegard Mousasi. Weidmanis looking to bounce back after two knockout losses, while Mousasi impressed strongly in 2016 with four wins and three straight finishes.

UFC 210 takes place at the Key Bank Center in Buffalo, New York on April 8.

Four days after adding an important Heavyweight clash to UFC Glendale, the promotion booked another crucial bout, in the Welterweight division. While, neither fighter ranks inside the top 15 of the Welterweight division, both sit at pivotal points in their career. In the case of Lima, he comes off a second appearance on the reality series, The Ultimate Fighter. Much like his first appearance, the Welterweight made the competition finals.

Lima first appeared on the reality series during Season 19: Team Edgar vs. Team Penn. In the preliminary round, he defeated Adam Stroup via unanimous decision (2 rounds), to earn a place in the house. From there, he submitted both his quarter-final and semi-final opponents. Lima left the Ultimate Fighter house undefeated, down the line, he did a similar thing on the 25th season of the show. He defeated Hayder Hassan, Gilbert Smith, and Tom Gallicchio, all by unanimous decision leaving the house undefeated for a second time.

Unfortunately, the inverse of his performances in the ‘TUF’ house came to fruition in the finals. In two Ultimate Fighter Finale’s, his record fell to 0-2, following Ultimate Fighter Finale Season 25. What happened to be even more unfortunate, Lima’s opponent at, The Ultimate Fighter Finale Season 25, Jesse Taylor, tested positive for the anti-estrogen agent clomiphene. The sample collected for the failed drug test was in an out-of-competition setting, therefor Lima’s loss to Taylor stands. The loss puts his record with the UFC at, 1-4.

A loss shouldn’t place Lima near the chopping block but, a win would greatly improve his standing with the promotion. The other half of the newly announced bout, is in a similar position.

Yushin Okami made his first appearance for the promotion at UFC 62. Okami earned the victory in his debut. The win marked his third consecutive win in the midst of a six fight win-streak. Over the course of those six victories, Okami defeated Alan Belcher (UFC 62), Kalib Starnes (UFC 64), Rory Singer (UFC 66), and Mike Swick (UFC 69). The Japanese born mixed martial artist remained on the roster for seven more years before being cut following a first round TKO loss to Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza.

Okami fought for various organizations following his release, while also dropping down to Welterweight. When, in the latter part of 2017, he was called upon as a short-notice injury replacement by the UFC. Seven days before UFC Fight Night 117: St. Preux vs. Rua, one half of the main event, Maurico Rua, withdrew due to an apparent knee injury. Okami answered the call, giving him seven days to prepare for rising Light Heavyweight contender, Ovince St. Preux. The Japanese native lost the contest by submission in the opening round.

UFC Fight Night Glendale takes place in Glendale Arizona at the Gila River Arena on April 14th. The main event features Justin Gaethje vs. Dustin Poirer.

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Aspen Ladd, Leslie Smith head trio of Fights Announced for UFC Atlantic City

The UFC shall return to the east coast, bringing fights to Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is the first trip to the east coast city of sin since July of 2016. With the announcement, paired a trio of fights, featuring Aspen Ladd vs. Leslie Smith. The UFC made the announcement during the broadcast of Saturdays UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Anders.

Alongside the high stakes booking of Ladd vs. Smith, the promotion announced two additional fights for the New Jersey event. New York-native Merab Divalishvili against Augusto Mendes in the men’s bantamweight division, and Magomed Bibulatov takes on Ulka Sasaki in the flyweight division.

UFC Atlantic City takes place on April 21st, broadcast on FS1. Boardwalk Hall hosts, as the venue of the event. The venue holds a bit of UFC history in its walls. Boardwalk Hall hosted three UFC events, the first of which in 2003, when the venue hosted UFC 41. Taking fans back to the days when events were ‘originally’ named, UFC 41: Onslaught hosted the likes of Matt Serra, Yves Edwards, Din Thomas, and Rich Clementi, on the undercard. UFC 41’s main card featured Frank Mir vs. Tank Abbott, Caolo Uno against BJ Penn, Matt Lindland vs. Phil Baroni, and Tim Sylvia defeated Ricco Rodriguez for the Heavyweight title in the main event. Boardwalk Hall also hosted UFC 50: The War of ’04, and UFC 53: Heavy Hitters.

According to a report from MMA DNA and confirmation by MMAFighting.com, Siyar Bahadurzada meets Luan Chagas at UFC Atlantic City as well. The bout takes place in the Welterweight division. Chagas and Bahadurzada both ride wins into the match-up. Chagas victorious in his previous match up against Jim Walhead at UFC 212, looks to make consecutive victories in New Jersey. On the other end, Bahadurzada holds a two fight win streak. With a 3-2 UFC record, the Afghani looks to continue to move up the ranks in an extraordinarily deep UFC Welterweight division.

The promotion also announced during the broadcast, UFC Fight Night: Utica, New York. Utica, New York is a new city for the UFC, never having held an event there. UFC Fight Night: Utica takes place on Friday, June 1st at the Adirondack Bank Center.

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Arjan Bhullar vs. Adam Wieczorek Official for UFC Glendale

Heavyweights will battle in Glendale. The third bout of the domestic card pits Arjan Bhullar against Adam Wieczorek. An announcement by the promotions international twitter account, UFC India, made the announcement earlier this morning.

Both Heavyweights come into the match-up with one fight and victory under the promotional banner. Bhullar made his debut at UFC 215 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada against Luis Henrique. He earned the victory by unanimous decision. His victory was a familiar sight, the Canadian-born is undefeated in 7 professional fights. Glendale, Arizona marks the first pro fight for Bhullar outside his home country of Canada. Previously, he fought under Canadian-based promotions, Hard Knocks and Battlefield Fight League.

Arjan Bhullar is yet another accomplished wrestler having a successful start to his MMA career. The Heavyweight is a two-time NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), Canada Wrestling’s 2009 Wrestler of the Year, and represented Canada at the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

His opponent, Adam Wieczorek, made his UFC debut in Sydney, Australia at UFC Fight Night 121: Werdum vs. Tybura. Wieczorek earned his victory by unanimous decision as well, defeating Anthony Hamilton. The Polish fighter had a different experience than his opponent, in booking his debut. Before scheduling and ultimately competing against Hamilton in Australia, Wieczorek saw two rescheduling’s and one opponent withdraw.

With a record of 9-1, his only loss came in his second professional bout. Wieczorek lost to fellow Polish UFC fighter and#8 ranked Marcin Tybura back in November of 2011. The bout also happened to be Tybura’s second pro fight, he won the contest by unanimous decision.

UFC Glendale takes place at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday, April 14th.